OK you're Tom Hanks

Ah, the General speaks again from Wales; where the men are men and the sheep are scared (don't even think of making Welsh jokes unless you are Welsh like the General and I are).

Talonite (r), my General, isn't going to suffer much damage from blunt force; in fact, a steel alloy tempered to Rc 58-60 is much more likely to severely chip out or break. The Talonite (r) is softer than steel, so that the edge will turn. Something that is reasonably easy to fix.

Here are my 'Desert Island Knife' selections:
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At top, the Kit Carson Large U2 dive knife; 1/4" thick Talonite, primary and secondary edges, and a blunt tip for prying abalones off the rocks; linen Micarta scales.

Below is a Tom Mayo drop point hunter, 3/16" Talonite blade, 5" long, linen Micarta scales.

Two Kit Carson folders next; the model #18, 4 1/4" blade, Ti scales and everything else (even the screws are Ti). A slim model #16, c-fiber scales, inlaid Ti liner lock, and 4 1/4" Stellite (r) blade. A good choice if weight is a consideration; the entire knife weighs only 3 oz.

Next a Darrel Ralph custom, similar to the large Apogee, but with no recurve to the blade. Ti scales.

Last, but not least, as you are likely to have it with you, the Rob Simonich Cetan with 3" Talonite blade and Ti scales.

Hope this helps, and sorry for the recent scarcity of Talonite
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,

Walt
 
Either a Livesay RTAK or a Livesay Air Assault: whichever one would look better on my keychain!
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Champions make improvements as fast as losers make excuses.
 
My old USMC K-Bar,1095 steel,good sharp edge which can be touched up on a rock if need be. You can slice with it,whack with it. Mine got me through a 13 month tour in 'Nam and I tried everything I could from opening up ammo crates, cutting up c-rat cans for a stove to chopping hard wood hootch poles and couldn't ruin it. Find a smooth river stone and you could get a passible edge on it which kept you until you could find a whetstone or a steel to get a razor edge back on it which is easy to do with 1095. Mine was a camullias and I still have it. Hard to improve on a "Classic" Remember this guy was far out in "nowheresville" and for 4 years even the best steel in the world is going to need a touch of a diamond stone and I didn't see one on him. Weldonia
 
when a knife gets rusty its not a good thing, but when this happens the EDGE gets rusty too....and becomes rusty metal which is no LONGER an edge......TALONITE IS KING! and tom hanks and barbara and alex and their marxist buddies are NOT moving fast enough for my liking!!!!!!!!!!!!!! America, land of the free, home of the brave!! send them all to siberia and see how they like it!!
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Tom, when anybody is sent to Siberia, I think the only thing they want would be FREEDOM and to go home.
Sure, it's fine to have a talonite but if the guy doesn't know how to survive, there's really no point him having an entire knapsack of survival goodies.
The poor bloke probably won't come back alive. The WILL TO LIVE should be the best thing he has on him. Otherwise, he won't survive 72 hours.
Now, about the talonite, any major Christmas discounts?


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Make Love your strongest weapon. Compassion your shield and forgiveness your armour.
 
My Busse (A2) SH II, INFI Mean Street, and Al Mar SERE 2000.
 
Actually, I would take a Tom Mayo TNT Talonite (r) folder with me to ANY desert island.

Here is a pic
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Hey walt, something stuck in your throat... careful, that could be dangerous....especially if I am on that desert island too!!!!!!!!!!!
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Walt, I love your "gag" picture!
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Here is what I would take to the island, Talonite Parasite of course! And a Camillus Talon in Talonite, or a Cetan of my own make.
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[This message has been edited by Rob Simonich (edited 12-28-2000).]
 
I haven't seen the movie, but the question really had me thinking, slow holiday week I guess.

First, you need the criteria:

1) Need a big knife. You don't have an ax or machete, so you need something that is big enough to really chop with. Sounds to me like 7.5" is the absolute minimum and then it would need to be blade heavy.

2) Need something that isn't that hard a material, probably no more than 58 or 59 RC max. You will need to sharpen it on a rock at some point. Also, should be tempered for toughness as much as hardness so that the accidental rock hit during chopping or hacking, as well as the prying duties do not make the blade unusable.

3) Need something with a thick enough profile for really hard use, probably at least .175 - .25" thick for prying and such.

4) Need something really rust resistant, for obvious reasons.

Based on all of that I have come up with some pretty odd possibilties, in no particular order:

1) SOG Tigershark: 440A, rust resistant (and a coating), easy to sharpen, a good chopper, big enough, and thick enough. Main problem, almost too pointy, I imagine that is going to get broken off at some point.

2) Busse 9" model: Or possibly even bigger, I have read that the INFI steel is hardened to about 58/59RC which is about the max for this application in my estimate. Would want it mirror polished (more rust resistant), and coated.

3) A Talonite custom: I have never had the chance to handle one of Rob S. knives, but the specs I have read on Talonite seem to fit the bill, and some of the bigger blades he makes would also fit the description.

4) A Titanium custom: The big Mission knife looks a bit small for this type of undertaking, so a further scaled up version would probably work. The specs. on the Beta Titanium they are using look about perfect.

There are certainly plenty of other good knives out there which at first glance would seem to fit, for example, a big Strider knife. However, they are hardened to RC 60, and I don't know about sharpening them with materials available in the field. In all other aspects it would probably suit fine. Similar thoughts on something like a Timberline SpecWar.
 
The crash sequence impressed upon me that addage "a survival knife is whatever you have on you in a survival situation."

So for me it's going to be a small knife that can always be on me and will not likely lose in an emergency.

Second, that knife better be really easy to sharpen, even on rocks. Carbon steel folders anyone?
 
What's with the Hollywood bashing? Is this
another episode in the continuing polarized
and overly political saga "You've gotta vote
Libertarian if you like knives" or something?

T.
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the only two real choices i see is any busse or any ed fowler knife... the only two truly high performance blades that have been proven to my satisfaction.
 
If it has to be the knife I have on me at the time that I am stranded it would be my BM 710 I always carry it. I have also been thinking of getting one of these http://www.witchblades.com/WB_Main-Welcome.htm
It would make fire starting so much easier and its something that I would probably wear all of the time.
If I knew that I was going to be stranded for a few years I would want something (BIG) in Talonite. I think that Rob has the right idea. A Busse Battle Mistress with a TUFF cloth and a diamond crock stick in the pouch would probably go along way towards helping me out.

Shawn
 
Well all things considered...

Puma Couger
BM E (soon to buy!)
D2 Ka Bar

All fantastic knives, I will be getting a Couger to try out soon, let you know about it.

W.A.

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"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto
 
The knife I would like to have on me if I get "castaway" is the one I have in my pocket...
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I guess situations like in Castaway happen so quickly and unexpectedly. I don't think anyone will be carrying their Busse, Ka bars or Carsons around everyday just in anticipation of that kind of event.

So I think the best knife is the one you have in your pocket, right then right there. You will be surprised how people can make do with less than ideal tools if they have the will to survive.
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Hey, Tom Hanks didn't even have a real knife in the movie! He did great with a pair of ice skates.

[This message has been edited by BluErf (edited 03-16-2001).]
 
Some of you guys are saying "your survival knife is the knife in your pocket; the one you have with you." To you all: this post asks which knife you'd LIKE to have, not WOULD have. That said, here is what I'd LIKE.

First, I don't think that a stainless knife is at all needed. What you need is a knife that is very tough, and not at all brittle (like stainless steel). You would be using this knife a lot, and therefore the rust would be rubbed off. Plus, if he washed the knife off and dried it each day, I doubt rust would be a serious problem. I lived in a tropical rainforested area for years, had a 1095 machete, and when I used it a lot, rust was not a problem. Even when not using it, rust wouldn't have been a structural problem except in hideous conditions (suberged in salt water etc.). Also, stainless steel is generally hard to sharpen, and if you can't sharpen it, then you've got a huge problem. So, my vote for steel is a 56-58 RC high carbon steel, maybe 1095. The steel has GOT not to be too hard...using a rock to sharpen is not easy.

Now, as for blade design, I would suggest a 13" blade or so, that is about 1/4" thick with a drop point blade for skinning. Blade width should be a max of 2.5 inches wide, to minimize weight. The blade would be of a bolo shape for chopping performance too.

For the handle, I'd choose something very strong and durable. Probably Busse's "Diamond Quilted Micarta". I would have a medium sized integral guard, much like the Busse Battle Mistress or Steel Heart 2.

So, basically, in the end you've got a machete. A pretty cheap, tough, simple, large machete. Do you guys consider a machete a knife or not? Well, that's what I'd take.
 
I'd have to say........ Rick Gray's small wood inlay Sebenza. If I'm going to be stranded on an island, and bored off my @ss for a long time, I want something I can just sit and admire for 10 hours a day.
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Of all the knives that I have in my safe I would probably prefer to have the 12" Mission Knives MPK due to its toughness and rust resistance, if I had a 2nd knife with it I would want my talonite Talon. Of course I would also want to have my 33yr.old EZ-Lap, a ferrocioum rod and some kind of steel to spart it with.

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Ron,
Bremerton, Washington
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